


Leaving

by Red_Tigress



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, but post civil-war trailer, post-AoU, written pre-civil war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 01:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5355212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Tigress/pseuds/Red_Tigress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A relationship beginning to fracture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leaving

**Author's Note:**

> You haven't seen anything from me in a while because I currently am working two jobs and job hunting, and developing my portfolio. That said, this was sort of a warm-up. Hopefully I can work on something longer soon. Mostly this is just an imagined conversation that takes place between AoU and CW, as something that could point to the fallout there.

Steve’s fist hesitated over the clear glass door. His jaw clenched with uncertainty and his other hand was shoved deep into the pocket of his leather jacket. He sighed and knocked lightly, already resigned to the awkwardness of the impending situation.

The man inside the glass laboratory swiveled in his chair. Tony’s face flashed a look of genuine surprise before settling an uneasy half-smile.

Tony sauntered over to the door and opened it.

“Sorry Cap, would have met you at the door, but Friday didn’t tell me we had visitors.”

Steve gave the other man a quick glance up and down. He was wearing comfortable sneakers, but his shoelaces were untied. His jeans had grease stains on them, and his t-shirt had coffee stains on that. His hair was disheveled and there was more than a hint of dark circles under his eyes. “Can I come in?” he asked.

Tony blinked. “Yeah, sure. Mi casa, su casa and all that.” He stepped aside, gesturing with one arm at the interior of the lab.

Steve inclined his head and gave a small smile of thanks. He slowly walked towards Tony’s desk while Tony talked to fill the silence.

“-not used to things being so quiet since you guys moved upstate. I mean, it’s great for working. No one trying to bang down my door all day, don’t have to worry about waking up Thor when he crashes on the couch, no shitty movies I have to suffer through at someone else’s request, don’t have to do other people’s dishes-”

“Tony, you never did your own dishes,” Steve interrupted. He trailed his fingertips over the desk in front of him and the holographic keyboard lit up on it.

“Okay, well, you got me there. So, uh, not to be rude…” Tony’s voice trailed off and Steve turned halfway towards him. Tony was doing that thing he did when he was uncomfortable where he sort of stared into space a little to the side of someone’s face. He also had his arms crossed over his chest.

“Have some projects to keep you busy?” Steve asked, evading the unspoken question.

Tony blinked and gave a minute shake of his head. “Uh...yeah. Yeah.”

“It’s good to keep busy,” Steve said absently as he glanced between all of the blurry surveillance photos currently open on three desktop displays. There were about twenty of them all told, and they all looked to be some place in the Caribbean or Central America. Nothing out of the ordinary stood out however. There was also a directory of medical clinics open on a fourth display in Spanish. “If Bruce doesn’t want to be found, I don’t think some blurry, developing country’s infrastructure is going to do the trick.”

Steve stood up and turned around just in time to see Tony’s eyes darken. Tony stepped forward and past him, swiping to his right in front of all the displays. They disappeared instantly. “Why are you here?” He said quietly. “It’s been months since I left, and no one’s batted an eyelash. Did you need something? Not that I’m not happy to help, but it’s just been a while since anyone wanted my help. Probably has something to do with the homicidal robot would be my guess. Even though I apologized for that.”

Steve refrained from saying something snarky, because no, Tony had never really apologized for that. Instead, he said “I’m leaving town for a couple months. Well, the United States. It’s….I’m looking for someone.”

Tony’s face lighted up in a way where he realized he might be useful again. Unbidden, guilt already started welling up inside of Steve. He had only learned recently how earnestly Tony tried to prove himself to the small handful of people he actually trusted. Tony immediately tried to hide it with a mask of false smugness. Admittedly Steve was a little hurt that they had come back to these types of interactions, after everything.

After Ultron.

“Need some help? I’m actually really good-”

Steve gestured towards where the pictures had been displayed a few minutes earlier. “Believe me, if you think Banner’s hard to find, there’s only been like three pictures taken of this guy since 1979.”

Tony snorted. “You do know I-”

Steve interrupted him again. “Sorry, Tony, this is just something I have to do myself, okay? It’s...personal.”

Tony sat back down in his chair and tapped his fingers on the desk. He looked thoughtful as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Alright. Well...what do you need from me?” This time, it wasn’t accusatory. It was genuinely concerned.

“I need you to support the team if they ask for it.”

A genuine look of confusion crossed Tony’s face. “Do I not support the team? Against all odds, Natasha actually turned out to be one of my favorite people, and Rhodey was like the only friend I had for years-”

Steve ignored the awful truth about that last statement and fixed Tony with a knowing look. “The whole team. Including Wanda and Vision.”

Tony’s face fell. “Oh.” Steve waited as Tony collected his thoughts. After a moment he looked back up at Steve. “Well, Vision is pretty autonomous now, right? I mean, he doesn’t really need me.”

“He doesn’t need you, Tony,  but he is less than a year old. At the very least, I think he wants to have some conversations with more than the five people he sees all the time. He’s…” Steve ran a hand through his hair. “Well, it’s very complicated. The least you can do is visit once in awhile. Since you did create him and all.”

Tony gave an ugly smirk and drummed his fingers on the desk again. “This is starting to sound way too much like a deadbeat dad intervention.”

Once again, Steve refrained from saying something snarky.

Tony’s shoulders heaved as he gave a dramatic sigh. “Fine.”

“And Wanda?”

“What about her?”

Steve rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. Be nice to her. Talk to her when you see her. Ask her how she’s doing. Simple stuff.”

Tony was silent for a moment, contemplating. Steve was about to press it, when the other man crossed his arms in such a way that his hands were resting on opposite shoulders and his elbows crossed over his chest. Tony made the whole motion seem simultaneously comfortable, but also vulnerable. Steve didn’t think it was that far from the truth.

“Thing is...I get where she’s coming from. As someone who’s also been on the receiving end of a Stark missile, I mean.” Tony’s eyes went distant for a moment before they flashed back to Steve, sharper than they were before. “If I don’t forgive myself for what happened to me, how can she?”

Steve’s raised a hand to his temple. He didn’t have the energy to have this conversation for what felt like the thousandth time. “You can’t change how you feel. But talking may make it hurt less. For both of you. You didn’t kill her parents, Tony.”

“I killed her brother, though.”

Tony was staring intently up at him, his eyes somewhat shadowed by his brow. For a second, Steve caught a flash of something really dangerous, before it was gone. In its place was just Tony, challenging him to tell him he was wrong.

Steve hated it when Tony was self-berating, but in this case...he wasn’t sure it was totally unwarranted.

He bit his lip, and didn’t correct the other man.

Tony gave a plastic smile and a fake laugh. “Yeah,” he huffed out. “Yeah.” He swiveled away in his chair so that his back was to Steve. “You better go, Cap. Wouldn’t want to miss a flight or something.”

Steve took the dismissal for what it was and turned to leave. When he was in the doorway, he turned back. “Tony, for what it’s worth, I’m-”

He tried to say it. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to say it so badly, or what it was for. What he regretted. So Tony wouldn’t feel alone? Or just to ease his own conscious?

Tony had turned to look at him, with a somewhat hopeful expression on his face.

“Take care, alright?”

Tony’s face changed back to a mask of indifference. “Oh, sure. You too.” He turned back around.

As Steve rode the elevator back down to the lobby of Stark Tower, he reflected on the crumbling foundations of this friendship which already felt so weak to begin with. Maybe he could talk to Rhodey later, see if he knew some way to repair it.

But deep down in his heart he knew that he didn’t really want to.

 

 


End file.
